United States politics
The recordFiled October 16, 2026Checked October 16, 2026
Did Trump suggest Iran should attack Los Angeles?
Democrats say he invited an attack on two California cities. The rally transcript shows he was talking about gas prices and a nuclear Iran, though his words were his own.
See primary source: RevLeft
Left · Left-leaning US report
Trump Hit With Fresh Call for 25th Amendment After Wild Offer For Iran To Take Out California
Annabella Rosciglione · October 6, 2026
President Donald Trump has been hit with fresh calls to be removed from office after he suggested Iran could take out two major American cities.
Right
Right · Right-leaning US report
Dems' latest Trump attack backfires as frequent critics refuse to play along
Ashley J. DiMella, Peter D'Abrosca · October 7, 2026
Some of President Donald Trump's most frequent media critics are turning on Democrats' latest attack on the president, rejecting claims that Trump suggested Iran should "take out" Los Angeles and San Diego.
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FP verdict
The numbers are real. The conclusion isn't.
Confidence score: 4/10 — The transcript doesn't support reading the passage as a request for an attack, but Trump's literal "Let them take out" wording leaves real ambiguity.
Sourced from Rev, the numbers are real and the conclusion isn't.
“The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles.”
In the full passage, Trump calls the war's higher gas prices "a small price to pay" and ties the war to stopping a nuclear Iran that "can take out a city." The words "Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego" are real, but the surrounding transcript doesn't support reading them as a request for an attack.
Primary source: Trump Rally in Nebraska on 10/05/26, full transcript (third-party, Rev) (Rev)
How the coverage differs
We haven't compared these two articles yet.
Shows its work
How this rating was reached
- Lie
- Doesn't hold up
- Misleading
- Mostly false
- Half true
- Mostly true
- True
- Unproven
This verdict partly aligns with the primary source, Rev: Trump did say "Let them take out Los Angeles," but the passage opens and closes on war-driven gas prices, the "small price to pay."
Questions to ask
- When a clip's meaning hinges on two words, why do both sides keep quoting the middle of the passage instead of its first and last lines?
01
The claim
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said: "The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles." Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump "is now saying our foreign enemies should 'take out' Los Angeles and San Diego."
02
What Trump said
Rev's third-party transcript of the Oct. 5 Grand Island, Neb., rally reads: "And again, remember with the word just artificial, it's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it's going to be over with very soon."
03
The minutes before
About seven minutes earlier in the same speech, Trump said Iran "will not have a nuclear weapon" and that when the war ends "the oil will come tumbling down." He also recalled saying: "We have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon."
04
The words right after
The passage closes on prices: "…but it's going to end very soon, and it'll end one way or the other and your gas and your gasoline and all of the things."
05
The left-leaning framing
The Daily Beast reported that Trump "suggested Iran could take out two major American cities," and quoted Newsom calling the remarks "madness" and "deranged."
06
The right-leaning framing
Fox News reported that frequent Trump critics, including CNN's Daniel Dale, rejected the Democratic reading. Dale wrote: "Trump has repeatedly argued that the consequences of the war, like higher gas prices, are a small price to pay compared to what an unchecked Iran could allegedly do."
07
Why it's misleading
The transcript places "a small price to pay" between a line about prices being "a little bit high" and a line about "your gas and your gasoline," so the price he names is the cost of the war, not the cities. Bass's statement turns an ambiguous rally riff into a request for an attack. But Trump's literal words were "Let them take out Los Angeles," not "they could," which is why the Democratic reading spread.
- Secondary reportingRev: Trump Rally in Nebraska on 10/05/26 (third-party transcript)
- Secondary reportingFox News: Dems' latest Trump attack backfires as frequent critics refuse to play along
- Secondary reportingThe Daily Beast: Trump Hit With Fresh Call for 25th Amendment After Wild Offer For Iran To Take Out California
08
The buried fact
Neither side quotes the passage's own first and last lines. It opens on prices being "a little bit high" and closes on "your gas and your gasoline," which frames the whole riff as a defense of war-driven fuel costs. The cities are named in the middle, as what a nuclear Iran could hit.
09
What each side gets right, and hides
Democrats are right that Trump said the words "Let them take out Los Angeles," and that he tied two US cities to "a small price to pay." They leave out that the price he was defending was gas. The White House is right about the context, but its account that he was "clearly stating" a hypothetical skips past the fact that his own words weren't conditional.
- Secondary reportingFox News: Dems' latest Trump attack backfires as frequent critics refuse to play along
- Secondary reportingThe Daily Beast: Trump Hit With Fresh Call for 25th Amendment After Wild Offer For Iran To Take Out California
- Secondary reportingRev: Trump Rally in Nebraska on 10/05/26 (third-party transcript)
10
The question to ask
When a clip's meaning hinges on two words, why do both sides keep quoting the middle of the passage instead of its first and last lines?
Reporting only: no specific source link.
Caveats and limits
Not verified
- We relied on Rev's third-party transcript; no White House or C-SPAN transcript or primary video could be checked.
- One phrase differs across transcripts: Rev has "with the word just artificial," Factba.se and others have "with the word, it's just artificial," and PolitiFact and FactCheck.org have "with the war, it's just artificial." Either way, the line refers to prices being "a little bit high."
Caveats
- This story rates the claim that Trump suggested an attack on Los Angeles. It doesn't rate his separate claims in the same speech about gas prices or Iran's nuclear program.
- Transcripts disagree on one phrase just before the passage; see what we couldn't verify.
Sources
Secondary reporting
Trump Rally in Nebraska on 10/05/26 (third-party transcript)Rev · October 6, 2026
Secondary reporting
Trump Hit With Fresh Call for 25th Amendment After Wild Offer For Iran To Take Out CaliforniaThe Daily Beast · Annabella Rosciglione · October 6, 2026
Secondary reporting
Dems' latest Trump attack backfires as frequent critics refuse to play alongFox News · Ashley J. DiMella, Peter D'Abrosca · October 7, 2026
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